B.C. clean-tech company in the running for $20M prize

WATCH: A $20-million global competition has been launched, hoping to inspire some of the world's brightest minds to help solve climate change. As Aaron McArthur tells us, it means a shot at commercial success for one local group.

A Vancouver-based company hopes to revolutionize the mining industry by converting carbon into something other than waste.

Terra CO2 Technologies is developing a method to take two types of waste — acidic drainage and carbon dioxide emissions — and combine them into a stable, environmentally-friendly byproduct.

Terra CO2 is the only B.C. company in the running for the NRG Cosia Carbon XPrize, a competition funded by companies looking for solutions to a carbon-intense economy. At stake is a $20-million grand prize.

“We’re on the map now of clean-tech companies, specifically for carbon reduction but also in many other applications,” Dylan Jones of Terra CO2 said.

Re-purposing carbon has some limitations. At this point, the energy requirements are significant and any commercial successes might be a ways off.

But for Terra CO2, getting to the next round of the competition means exposure and possible interest from investors.

“We’re moving forward in a way we want to move forward,” Jones said.

The XPrize semifinal begins in August with a full-scale industrial test in store for the finalists.